Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said Tuesday that he would not consider approving a second casino license anywhere in the country, providing an “affirmative no” when asked the question by Bloomberg TV.
His comments follow previous denials over a recent Bloomberg report which claimed Genting Group’s Lim Kok Thay and Berjaya Corp founder Vincent Tan had met with Anwar to discuss a possible casino development in struggling township development Forest City in Johor, near Malaysia’s border with Singapore.
Quizzed further this week, Anwar stated, “There’s no necessity for Malaysia to venture into the casino business. We are focusing on digital transformation, energy transition, AI, and we believe that this is adequate to push the country forward.”
Anwar had previously described those reports as a lie and demanded an explanation from the reporter involved in the original article, which had also claimed Malaysia’s King Ibrahim Iskander could back a Johor casino given he holds a personal 20% stake in the Forest City venture.
Speaking with Bloomberg TV, Anwar added his strong response was because such reports were disrespectful to the king, but said, “nobody was arrested” and that it was time to “move on.”
Genting Malaysia holds the nation’s only existing casino license for its long-standing Resorts World Genting resort in the Genting Highlands outside Kuala Lumpur.
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